Yeah, I never took the comics to imply that there were only 13 colony ships (aka Titans) ever. By the same token, I don't think the 13 colony ships have to align with the 13 tribes. For example, just because the Camiens worship Solus over the others, doesn't mean that Caminus, the titan, had to be commissioned or carry Solus herself.

Now, it could be. Caminus could have been Solus' ship and/or servant and all the Camiens "realated" to her somehow. But I hope the comics will avoid that "planet of hats" model of sci-fi and allow each colony to be more diverse than that.

 

I wonder if, going forward, Optimus takes this advice to heart...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6LD6ITN2dk

 

 

I admit the religious aspects were not my favorite moments. I am intrigue how Optimus will handle this.

 

There is definitely more than 13 Titan Colony Ships - else this isn't possible:


Which makes me wonder: Did Lockdown and his crew entcounter any of the colonies like Canimus?

 

Windblade 2 is off to a excellent start.

Stone's artwork completes the story far more than Ramondelli's art ever could. I was very much invested while I read unlike the previous Combiner Wars issue.

I really love how Swindle was drawn here...he made so many great faces.  

Ironhide and Chromia make a good duo..surprise...surprise.

The Mistress of Flame finally makes her grand entrance...I really like how we finally get the jist of Camnien religion, it's quite fascinating. I hope the rest of this delivers.

 

Oh what a huge difference lovely art makes. I'm feeling awfully shallow as I was put off and only skim read once that hideous opening salvo and this really held my attention.

This is exactly the kind of starscream I've wanted to read in Idw for ages I hope he continues to be His scheming overblown self brilliantly.

Also great to see and contradicting religion/tradition to mess with things

 

I love the religious angles IDW has taken. I know my interest in my own faith has caused me to go back and try to discover the roots of where certain stories or legends came from. Trying to piece together the past from those stories and trying to discern any truth you can.
A lot of that seems to be reflected with how IDW's Transformers series handles religion. You have the Knights of Cybertron, the Guiding Hand, the Thirteen. There are relics, ruins, Cybertronians who remember far enough back to recall certain events. So there's some sort of truth to it all, but what the truth is is never made clear. It's a brilliant example of world building.

 

Ah there is a different Religion and Spirituality take look at Star Saber and WindBlade.

 

I know I may be among the few if not the only one to have this opinion because while I do enjoy the take on the 13 IDW has done I also like how in the Aligned universe they're like demigods though I too find the idea of Optimus being among the 13 to be stupid. I guess it's the fantasy and myth fan in me liking the idea of the TFs having a mythical based origin. That said I'm not dismissing the route IDW has done either because it's more rooted in how most myths and religions are viewed in real life so in a way both takes have different directions for people who like either one or both even to enjoy even though either one have some writing flaws in them.

 

I wouldn't bet on it, on the basis that even a weaker colony than Caminus could likely destroy them in a fight.

Heck, I think we've seen more than 13 dead titans.

There's the Crystal City Titan, the Necrotitan, and all the ones on Luna 1.

Though considering the Primes *left* with the ship, they would be the actual leaders of each colony in the early days, and that would shape them.


Hmmm... what if some other than Alpha Trion are still alive...? Unlikely, perhaps, but as Alpha shows, possible.


And I wonder what happened with Nexus's Titan.

Perhaps some of the leaving titans were filled with mixes of tribes. Like, the fuzor colony could've had bots that were part of Nexus's tribe but didn't become headmasters, who joined up with some of Onyx's bots, or something. Well, I'm completely speculating here.

 

I notice the art in this issue makes a frequent point of Optimus Prime being larger than Starscream and looming over him. Since Starscream's obviously got a body upgrade planned, I kinda expect him to bump up the size to address the balance, kinda like toys the comic draws from.

(and then Optimus goes combiner and stomps him   )

 

I enjoyed this issue and i'm loving the aligned stuff.

 

Probably not. I mean, spark determines size to an extent, and Starscream's a flier anyway. Speed and maneuverability are his keys.


Personally I'm a bit disappointed he's changing bodies, the Armada one is fitting for his new role, and Starscream has been pretty badass in it.

 

That is the main reason why I dislike RID/Transformers Vol.2, it's nothing but merchandise driven while as it's the other way around for MTMTE.

 

I wonder if Prime will shave his head and grow a goatee now...

 

I wouldn't call it very merchandise driven at all, or at least not in a way that messes with the plot.

I mean, the whole 'war over, rebuilding on Cybertron,' thing isn't merchandise driven at all. That Starscream got a new body fit at a convenient moment, but neither drove nor altered the plot in any significant way. The focus on Prowl and Arcee and Soundwave and Thundercracker isn't- the first three don't even have toys of their current forms, and Thundercracker hasn't had a toy in a few years. Metalhawk had no toy. Etc.. Pretty much, you get the odd character change bodies, and a few minor characters introduced, but that's about it.


Combiner Wars, arguably, but one could call that as the comic giving the toy section ideas. IDW's combiners being a big thing is one that had built up threads from way before Combiner Wars. Like, every segment of IDW, from Furman's run to AHM to Costa's to RiD, all made them into a big deal, so that flowed fairly organically too.

 

I'm pretty sure Combiner Wars is definitely more toy>comic than comic>toy. The CW line has probably been in development for a while, years even, so Hasbro probably had a chat with Barber about purposely leading up to the event. The Aerialbots leaving Iacon back in the beginning of RiD was mentioned in a recent interview as purposely setting up for this event, if I'm remembering properly.

That said, I don't think the honestly-obvious product placement is messing with Barber's writing. One of his strengths is making a coherent continuity of whatever mess he's handed, so he's actually one of the better writing options for fitting in Hasbro's requests. Any issues with the writing are down to Barber's style, rather than the situation he's in.

I'd initially dropped RID after Dark Cybertron because I wasn't enjoying each individual issue - but once the Humble Bundle pack came around, I wound up enjoying the return-to-earth arc sa a whole. My guess is Barber, perhaps unintentionally, is writing for the trades, rather than the individual issues, since he's got a fair bit of setup for payoffs that are a ways bit away. As for Combiner Wars specifically, I found Opening Salvo to be a let-down, and honestly skip-able, thanks to the recap in Winblade 2015 #1. This issue was fairly enjoyable, though I'm not sure how much of the writing is collaborative effort or simply Scott working off Barber's editorial notes.

 

I like the mechs around Windblade more than the actual titled character of this series. I mean Swindle is great and even Menasor in this issue. Optimus Prime was okay and the Starscream was even fascinating but Windblade needs to grow first.

 

Agreed, Windblade still has no real personality or defining character traits. If you asked me to describe Windblade to someone I think I'd be at a loss for words.

 

I honestly think Windblade's a pretty developed and interesting character in her own right. She started off as being a little optimistic about getting to see a new place and she had sort of a naive streak to her but later on that changed as different events happened during her mini series. I like that she has a likeable good hearted side to her but she isn't stupid to know when things are off or not.